Another iPhone "killer" prepares to enter the market from Smartphone stalwart BlackBerry

Every time a Smartphone with a touchscreen and an internet connection comes out, it's hailed as the iPhone killer. Each time an iPhone killer is announced it makes nary a dent in the iPhone's armor of coolness. Right now, the iPhone 3G is at the top of the Smartphone sales charts with two models from BlackBerry bringing up second and third.

RIM, the company behind the BlackBerry, is getting ready to launch a new iPhone dethroning hopeful called the Storm. As things go today, the handset’s details were leaked ahead of its official launch. Time.com cobbled together a series of leaked details from around the web and threw the info together.

So far, the Storm is said to have a 3.2-inch touchscreen and an appearance much more like the iPhone than the typical BlackBerry device. Key features include GPS, Wi-Fi, and the handset will run on the Verizon 3G network.

One feature of the Storm that will make many iPhone users jealous is the built-in cut and paste feature. That particular feature (or lack thereof) is a sore spot for many iPhone owners. Typical BlackBerry devices, like the Bold, feature QWERTY keyboards for typing, something the Storm will forgo in favor of an iPhone-like onscreen keyboard.

BlackBerry one-ups the iPhone in the keyboard department by giving the keyboard the ability to work in landscape mode. For some reason, Apple opted not to allow the iPhone keyboard to rotate into landscape mode for better typing of emails and text messages. Camera quality on the iPhone is decent with 2-megapixels of resolution. BlackBerry has gifted the storm with a 3.2-megapixel camera for higher quality shots.

BlackBerry will even offer an App Store-like area to purchase add-on software. Overall, the Storm sounds much more like a Smartphone aimed at the masses than a business specific device that the traditional BlackBerry is viewed as by many.

"It's okay. The scenarios aren't that clear. But it's good looking. [Steve Jobs] does good design, and [the iPad] is absolutely a good example of that." -- Bill Gates on the Apple iPad